Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja rubicundula |
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common paintbrush, common red paintbrush, giant red Indian paintbrush, great red paintbrush, scarlet Indian paintbrush, scarlet or common or giant red paintbrush, scarlet paintbrush |
cream sacs |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, 1.2–8(–10) dm; from a woody caudex (or slender rooting rhizomes in var. dixonii, var. miniata); with a taproot or with slender, branched roots from a rhizome. | Herbs, annual, 0.6–6 dm; with a taproot or branched root system. | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | few to many, erect to ascending, rarely proximally decumbent or creeping and rooting at nodes, usually branched, glabrous, glabrate, or hairy, hairs spreading to ± retrorse, short to long, soft to stiff, rarely stipitate-glandular. |
solitary, erect, unbranched, sometimes branched, hairs spreading, short, soft, often mixed with stipitate-glandular ones. |
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Leaves | green to purple, linear to lanceolate, narrowly elliptic, narrowly oblong, or ovate, (1.5–)3–8(–9.5) cm, thin and not fleshy or slightly to moderately thickened and slightly fleshy, margins plane, rarely wavy, flat to involute, whole leaf sometimes recurved downward, 0(–5)-lobed, apex acute to obtuse, sometimes rounded; lobes ascending-spreading, narrowly lanceolate, apex acute. |
green to purple-tinged or dark red-brown, linear-lanceolate or distal lanceolate, 2–8(–9) cm, not fleshy, margins plane, flat to slightly curved up, 0–7-lobed, apex acute to acuminate; lobes widely spreading or ascending-spreading, linear, apex acute. |
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Inflorescences | 3–15(–22) × 1.5–5.5 cm, often bearing a thin, white, powdery exudate, especially on bract surfaces; bracts greenish, scarlet, red, red-orange, or pale orange throughout, sometimes pink, magenta, pink-purple, yellow, greenish yellow, white, or salmon throughout, or proximally greenish, distally colored as above, lanceolate to oblong-ovate, 0–5(–7)-lobed, central lobes sometimes distally apiculate; lobes erect, linear to lanceolate, oblong, or oblanceolate, short or medium length, arising near or above mid length, central lobe apex obtuse, rounded, or truncate, lateral ones rounded to acute or acuminate. |
2.5–24 × 3–4 cm; bracts green throughout, lanceolate to ovate, 5–9-lobed; lobes ascending, linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, medium length, arising near mid length, apex acute to acuminate. |
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Pedicels | 0–5 mm. |
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Corollas | slightly curved, 20–48 mm; tube 12–26 mm; abaxial lip usually not exserted, though often visible in front calyx cleft, beak partially to fully exserted; beak adaxially green to yellow-green or whitish, (9–)14–25 mm; abaxial lip incurved or ascending, deep green or green, sometimes deep purple or yellowish, reduced, not inflated, visible in front cleft, 0.5–3.5 mm, 5–20% as long as beak (to ca. 33% as long as beak in some populations of var. miniata); teeth incurved or erect, green or white, 0.7–1.5 mm. |
straight, (15–)20–28 mm; tube 8–24 mm; abaxial lip, beak, and proximal part of corolla tube exserted; beak adaxially white, rarely very pale yellow or pale pink-purple, 5–7 mm, inconspicuously puberulent; abaxial lip white, fading to pink to pink-purple, or yellow, fading to white, rarely then to pink or pink-purple, both forms often with purple or red dots at base, inflated, prominent, pouches 3, 8–10 mm wide, 4–6 mm deep, 4–6 mm, 80–100% as long as beak; teeth erect, white or yellow, 0.5 mm. |
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Calyces | colored as bracts, 15–38 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 4–24 mm, 35–70% of calyx length, deeper than laterals, lateral (1–)3–8(–12) mm, 5–30% of calyx length; lobes linear or narrowly lanceolate to narrowly triangular, apex acute to acuminate or obtuse. |
green, 8–14 mm; abaxial and adaxial clefts 3–6 mm, 30–50% of calyx length, all 4 clefts subequal; lobes linear, apex acuminate to acute. |
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Stigmas | ± exserted, as long as or slightly longer than beak and visible from abaxial side. |
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2n | = 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144. |
= 24. |
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Castilleja miniata |
Castilleja rubicundula |
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Distribution |
AK; AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; ON; SK; YT; nw Mexico
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CA; OR
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Discussion | Varieties 4 (4 in the flora). Castilleja miniata is widely recognized as the common scarlet paintbrush. It is highly variable and has five levels of polyploidy. Nonetheless, it remains fairly well defined morphologically across its wide range. Native Americans use it medicinally. A probable hybrid with C. septentrionalis from southern Nevada was named C. ×porterae Cockerell. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Castilleja rubicundula is separated into two varieties on the basis of flower color, as well as subtle differences in the pouching of the abaxial corolla lip. The ranges of the two varieties are broadly overlapping, but they never grow in the same location. Few intermediate forms have been recorded, though a very unusual population system exists in Santa Clara County, within which virtually all plants exhibit a tricolored corolla sequence, with yellow flowers aging to white and then pink or pink-purple, with all three colors visible on mature inflorescences. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 627. | FNA vol. 17, p. 652. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | Orobanchaceae > Castilleja | ||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Orthocarpus rubicundulus | |||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 106. (1838) | (Jepson) T. I. Chuang & Heckard: Syst. Bot. 16: 658. (1991) | ||||||||||||||||
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